LINDEN MARTYRS

This is the dark time, my love, All round the land brown beetles crawl about The shining sun is hidden in the sky Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow This is the dark time, my love, It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears. It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious Who comes walking in the dark night time? Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass It is the man of death, my love, the stranger invader Watching you sleep and aiming at your dream.

From “Poems of Resistance from British Guiana” by Guyanese poet Martin Wylde Carter (7 June 1927 - 13 December 1997) published in 1954 On July 18 the people of Linden, Guyana were plunged into a nightmarish situation reminiscent of Martin Carter’s poem “This is the dark time, my love.” Three Guyanese men (Shemroy Bouyea 18, Allan Lewis 46 and Ron Somerset 18) taking part in a peaceful protest were killed and 20 men and women wounded by police. Carter’s words “It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears. It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery. Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious” seem eerily apt in describing the situation that Lindeners face today in the 21st century in an independent Guyana. When Carter penned those famous words he was describing a Guyana under the yoke of colonial Britain, pre-independence. Carter and other Guyanese urged/agitated for Guyana’s (then British Guiana) independence from Great Britain and he was imprisoned by the colonial government. During his incarceration in 1953 he wrote “Poems of Resistance” which was published in 1954 and included “This is the dark time, my love.” In that poem Carter refers to “the man of death who comes walking in the dark night time, whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass” and this “man of death” is a “stranger invader, watching you sleep and aiming at your dream.” The “stranger invader” were the British soldiers sent to Guyana by the British government to restore “law and order” while in reality they were there to silence the Guyanese who were demanding independence from the colonial British overlords. The British government was really concerned that the descendants of enslaved Africans and indentured Asians were elected to form a government. Alarmed that their colony would be governed by racialised people, the British invaded the country and the rest is history.

In the case of Linden on July 18, almost three weeks ago the man of death was not a stranger invader but instead Guyanese police and the government is not a colonial government but Guyanese men and women. In 1953 during his incarceration Carter also wrote “I Clench My Fist” describing the resistance to the “stranger invader.”

You come in warships terrible with death I know your hands are red with Korean blood I know your finger trembles on a trigger And yet I curse you – Stranger khaki clad. British soldier, man in khaki careful how you walk My dead ancestor Accabreh is groaning in his grave At night he wakes and watches with fire in his eyes Because you march upon his breast and stamp upon his heart. Although you come in thousands from the sea Although you walk like locusts in the street Although you point your gun straight at my heart I clench my fist above my head; I sing my song of Freedom!

On July 18 the people of Linden did not have to fear an invasion of foreigners from across the sea they were brutalized, traumatized and killed by fellow Guyanese armed with guns wearing the state police uniforms carrying out orders from people who are now refusing to take responsibility. Instead the government of Guyana in a shameful effort to shirk responsibility which is ultimately theirs has tried to shift blame to other political parties. In an official statement released by the Guyana government they blamed the opposition parties for the situation in Linden. Some members of the Linden community have been very vocal in expressing their opinion that the government of Guyana is penalizing the community for overwhelmingly supporting the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC) during the 2011 November elections.

At a candle-light vigil held at Queens Park in Toronto on Saturday July 28 Dr. Alissa Trotz professor of Caribbean Studies and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto shed some light on the reason for the July 18 protest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaxT8RvKwf0. Professor Trotz informed the group of about 100 people that on 18 July police opened fire on unarmed Guyanese holding a peaceful protest in Linden (protesting 800% increases in the cost of electricity to the community) killing three people and injuring 20. We also learnt from Professor Trotz that a Chinese multinational company has been given the right to set the electricity rate for Linden residents. Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc is a private company from China which has taken over the bauxite mining industry in Demerara, Guyana which was once the purview of the American bauxite giant Aluminium Company of America (Alcoa) and the Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA) owned by ALCAN (of Canada), a subsidiary of ALCOA. Professor Trotz who works closely with Red Thread Women's Development Organisation in Guyana is privy to information that many of us at the candle-light vigil were hearing for the first time and urged support for the beleaguered people of Linden who are suffering 70% unemployment in the community. She reminded us that the last time Guyanese had been killed by police was at the Enmore sugar estate on June 16, 1948 and recognized that the Linden Martyrs were killed just one month after a commemoration of the Enmore Martyrs. As happened in 1948 after the colonial government sanctioned the killing of Guyanese workers by the police force this Guyana government is attempting to rationalize the murders. The government and police are fudging the facts which include police use of live rounds and not rubber bullets as had been claimed.

At the funeral for the fallen Guyanese of Linden which was held on August 1st (Emancipation Day) prominent Guyanese lawyer Nigel Hughes (recently elected Chairman of AFC) reportedly said: “I will make one pledge; I pledge to you that this event will not pass unnoticed and I say to you, no justice no peace.” Not to be outdone the leader of the Guyana opposition party in government David Granger reportedly pledged: “We, the PNC/R, will build a monument (at the Wismar shore). This will be the mark where police brutality will stop. I was here and I saw the wounds on the bodies and I knew from my own military experience that it was deliberate and murder. We will continue until you get what you deserve. We will not relent; we will not give up. We are working with civil society and your leaders… those who will refine humanity and refine the dignity of Linden. The struggle of the martyrs will not be in vain.”

The people of Buxton got a jump start on that idea and have already built a monument to honour the more than 450 Guyanese (including the Linden Martyrs) who have been killed by police since 1992. On Friday, August 3, the monument was unveiled in Buxton and the dedication was attended by politicians including opposition leader Granger who reportedly promised: “The day for one party ruling, the day for murders without commission of inquiries, without inquest, came to an end on November 28, 2011 and there will be a commission of inquiry into every single death on this East Coast.” Dr. David Hinds of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) reportedly condemned the Guyana government: “The government is the most brutal government, the bloodiest government, the most bad-minded government in the history of post-colonial days.” A monument to freedom fighters located in Buxton is very appropriate. Buxton which is one of the earliest villages established by Africans who united after slavery was abolished, pooled their money and bought an abandoned plantation on the east coast of Demerara is famous in Guyana’s history for the fearlessness of its people who stood up to the colonial British government in the 1840s.

HISTORY OF CARNIVAL IN TORONTO

On July 1, 1867 Canada became a country with four provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec. Prior to Confederation where the “British North America Act” (BNA) was produced in January 1867, this Native land on which we live was a British colony. The British government approved the BNA on March 29, 1867 and the Dominion of Canada was born on July 1, 1867. More than 100 years later the other six provinces plus 3 territories became part of Canada (the last was Nunavut in 1999.) In 1982, the BNA was renamed the Constitution Act, 1867. In 1967 Canada celebrated its centennial with a year long party which included the 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67. As part of the celebration the Canadian government invited/encouraged various ethnic groups to showcase their culture. The contribution of the Caribbean community in Toronto was the Caribana Festival. In 1967 the Caribbean community in Toronto staged the first Caribana, with 8 bands and approximately 1,000 participants which drew about 50,000 spectators. The festival was organized by a group of people from various Caribbean countries but based on the Carnival of Trinidad and Tobago. Reportedly the first discussions for organizing a Caribbean festival took place in a downtown fire hall in 1966. Organizers felt that the common cultural event found in every Caribbean nation was the colourful exuberant tradition of carnival, with the larger than life celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago serving as a model. The long weekend at the beginning of August which coincides with the commemoration of the abolition of chattel slavery was ideal for a celebration. In all the Caribbean countries that were colonized by Britain as well as in Canada the descendants of enslaved Africans celebrate August 1st or August Monday because slavery was abolished on August 1, 1834.

An official organizing body the Caribbean Centennial Committee was founded in 1967 (later renamed the Caribbean Cultural Committee-Caribana in 1969) and the plans for the first Caribana were made. The first Caribana parade began at Varsity Stadium (Bloor Street) on Saturday, August 5, 1967 going east on Bloor Street, south on Yonge Street, then west on Queen Street to City Hall watched by about 50,000 spectators. By 1970 the Caribana parade had been moved to University Avenue and in 1991 it was moved to the CNE Grandstand and Lakeshore Boulevard.

The first Caribana was such a success (the Caribana attendees reportedly set a one-day record for ferry use on the last day of that 1967 celebration) that the authorities realized its money making potential and encouraged the organizers to make it an annual event. From its modest beginning in 1967 the Caribbean Festival has grown into the largest Caribbean festival in North America and the third largest carnival in the world, drawing over 1 million spectators and 250,000 visitors a year and contributing more than 400 million dollars to the Canadian economy. There have been some changes other than the numbers and location. The Caribbean organization which initiated the celebration has been sidelined and the festival has been re-named, branded by a corporate “sponsor.” One thing that has remained the same over the years is that the Caribbean community provides the entertainment and Canadian (mostly white) companies and individuals become wealthier. The hotels, taxi cab companies, restaurants, club owners, vendors, government (police, public transportation etc.,) all make money during the weeks of celebration of the Caribbean festival. The Caribbean community has not benefited from the millions of dollars their talent has brought into this country via the Caribbean Festival that began in 1967 as Caribana. After 45 years of work providing entertainment that has made Toronto the place to be for hundreds of thousands of visitors annually during the August 1st weekend our community is no further ahead financially. The celebration became somewhat removed from its history of resistance and became a visual display of “feathers, floats and flesh” as one white male writer labelled it in an August 1, 2010 article entitled “Caribana Delivers Feathers, Floats, and Flesh.” Unfortunately that is what many people who come to watch the annual celebration see and think they know about Caribbean culture.

The history of the beginning of the Carnival after which the Caribana celebration was modelled has almost been lost in the revelry and the recent rush to claim this “goose that lays the golden eggs.” At the recent “Kwame Ture Memorial Lecture Series 2012” held in Trinidad and Tobago during a panel discussion themed “Reclaiming The Carnival: History of Resilience and Resistance” held at the National Library in Port-of-Spain the Poet Laureate of Trinidad and Tobago Pearl Eintou Springer spoke of a similar concern: “The people don’t have any knowledge of the importance of Carnival and of its roots historically, and its role as an instrument of social expression and social cohesion, and its possibility for transformation and regeneration. The people don’t have knowledge of a people’s ability to survive. There is critical need for the knowledge of the African to be spread in the communities. The knowledge is not only about Carnival. It is not only about critical resistance and retention. It is about a people’s ability to survive after all the challenges...after suffering the worst holocaust. The same people who cursed it and lambasted before are the same people who are embracing it. The Carnival is being taken away from us. The African is being robbed of this Carnival. It is being taken away from us. The Carnival is now being taken away because they (the business sector) are now seeing it as economically relevant. It is now good for them.”

This year there has been some acknowledgement of Caribana’s connection to August 1st Emancipation Day. However I was surprised at the information (or lack) contained in the literature of one of the new sponsors named at the July 17 launch of the Caribbean festival. The documented history of the Demerara Distillers Rum which is a new sponsor contains no acknowledgement of the contribution of enslaved Africans’ unpaid labour to the success of the company. Although the company acknowledges: “Rum has its origin rooted in the years of the sugar plantations. The story of Demerara Rum began in 1670 at a time when almost sugar estate in Guyana had its own distillery each producing its own unique rum through the introduction of the art of distillation. It was here that the foundation of Demerara Rums was laid down. Over the centuries rum production was consolidated under the ownership of the Demerara Distillers Ltd (DDL)” The fact that the company’s operation began in 1670 means that the unpaid labour of enslaved Africans contributed to the success of the company whoever owns it today. Sugar and rum could not have been produced in the Caribbean without the coerced, unpaid labour of enslaved Africans and that needs to be acknowledged. Sugar and its by-product rum which made the fortune of many poverty stricken white men who went to the "colonies" to make their fortune contributed to the wealth of Britain and other European nations as illustrated in this BBC production http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=injqATWMRkM about slavery in Jamaica which was very similar to slavery in Guyana and everywhere that the British exploited and brutalised the Africans they enslaved.

On August 4 when the visitors to the 45th celebration of Caribbean culture gather to watch the spectacle on Lakeshore Boulevard and those playing “mas” in their spectacular costumes most will not know the history of the celebration. It is important that we know the history and share it with our friends and family who travel from various places to celebrate.

EMANCIPATION DAY AUGUST 1-1834

On August 1, 1834 the British Imperial Act of 1833 (An Act for the Abolition of Slavery) mandated an end to chattel slavery in British colonies. In Canada enslaved Africans became free on August 1, 1834 however enslaved Africans in British colonies in the Caribbean did not become completely free until four years later on August 1, 1838. The Abolition Act also compensated the White men and women who had benefited from the unpaid labour of enslaved Africans while Africans received no compensation for the years they provided free labour which enriched Europeans. The complete name of the Act tells its own tale: “An Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies; for promoting the Industry of the manumitted Slaves; and for compensating the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves.” This “compensating the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves” not only added “insult to injury” but further filled the coffers of the white slaveholders and added to the wealth of Europe, Europeans and their descendants. At the same time the impoverishment of Africa, the formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants was guaranteed for generations. Guyanese historian Dr. Walter Rodney has powerfully portrayed in his 1973 published book “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” the stunting effect the trading in African bodies had on the African continent: “Many things remain uncertain about the slave trade and its consequences for Africa, but the general picture of destructiveness is clear, and that destructiveness can be shown to be the logical consequence of the manner of recruitment of captives in Africa. One of the uncertainties concerns the basic question of how many Africans were imported. This has long been an object of speculation, with estimates ranging from a few millions to over one hundred million. A recent study has suggested a figure of about ten million Africans landed alive in the Americas, the Atlantic islands and Europe. Because it is a low figure, it is already being used by European scholars who are apologists for the capitalist system and its long record of brutality in Europe and abroad. In order to white-wash the European slave trade, they find it convenient to start by minimising the numbers concerned. The truth is that any figure of Africans imported into the Americas which is narrowly based on the surviving records is bound to be low, because there were so many people at the time who had a vested interest in smuggling slaves (and withholding data). Nevertheless, if the low figure of ten million was accepted as a basis for evaluating the impact of slaving on Africa as a whole, the conclusions that could legitimately be drawn would confound those who attempt to make light of the experience of the rape of Africans from 1445 to 1870.” Rodney also quotes from the writing of the late Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Eric Williams: “The connections between slavery and capitalism in the growth of England is adequately documented by Eric Williams in his well-known book Capitalism and Slavery. Williams gives a clear picture of the numerous benefits which England derived from trading and exploiting slaves, and he identified by name several of the personalities and capitalist firms who were the beneficiaries. Outstanding examples are provided in the persons of David and Alexander Barclay, who were engaging in slave trade in 1756 and who later used the loot to set up Barclays’ Bank. There was a similar progression in the case of Lloyds – from being a small London coffee house to being one of the world’s largest banking and insurance houses, after dipping into profits from slave trade and slavery. Then there was James Watt, expressing eternal gratitude to the West Indian slave owners who directly financed his famous steam engine, and took it from the drawing-board to the factory.”

Although the Portuguese began this barbaric trade quickly followed by the Spanish it was the British who almost monopolized this dreadful system for centuries supported by the British monarchy. Dr Rodney argues: “Some attempts have been made to try and quantify the actual monetary profits made by Europeans from engaging in the slave trade. The actual dimensions are not easy to fix, but the profits were fabulous. John Hawkins made three trips to West Africa in the 1560s, and stole Africans whom he sold to the Spanish in America. On returning to England after the first trip, his profit was so handsome that Queen Elizabeth I became interested in directly participating in his next venture and she provided for that purpose a ship named the Jesus. Hawkins left with the Jesus to steal some more Africans, and he returned to England with such dividends that Queen Elizabeth made him a knight. Hawkins chose as his coat of arms the representation of an African in chains.” Rodney’s argument is supported by the words of Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895) and Karl Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) who were two white men born in Germany: "The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black skins, signalised the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production." Not that Engels or Marx were by any stretch of the imagination champions of African people’s rights even though some of their writings are sympathetic to the plight of enslaved Africans but they at least recognized the truth of Europe’s role in underdeveloping Africa and the gains Europeans garnered from the unpaid labour of enslaved Africans. They were just stating the facts. They also wrote: “With the development of capitalist production during the manufacturing period, the public opinion of Europe had lost the last remnant of shame and conscience. The nations bragged cynically of every infamy that served them as a means to capitalistic accumulation. Read, e.g., the naïve Annals of Commerce of the worthy A. Anderson. Here it is trumpeted forth as a triumph of English statecraft that at the Peace of Utrecht, England extorted from the Spaniards by the Asiento Treaty the privilege of being allowed to ply the negro trade, until then only carried on between Africa and the English West Indies, between Africa and Spanish America as well. England thereby acquired the right of supplying Spanish America until 1743 with 4,800 negroes yearly. This threw, at the same time, an official cloak over British smuggling. Liverpool waxed fat on the slave trade. Liverpool employed in the slave-trade, in 1730, 15 ships; in 1751, 53; in 1760, 74; in 1770, 96; and in 1792, 132.”

The benefits and profits of the European slave trade in African bodies have accrued in value since the four hundred year brutal and inhumane trade was abolished. The benefits to Europe, Europeans and their descendants were more than financial it was the beginning of white skin privilege a scourge which haunts the descendants of enslaved Africans to this day. It has dogged our footsteps and in many cases our minds and when Bob Marley admonishes us to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery he is referring to the legacy of the enslavement of our ancestors. During slavery Africans were stripped of their names, their culture, their belief systems and many were taught to revere European culture, names and belief systems and to despise their own. Those beliefs of European superiority and African inferiority savagely and brutally forced on Africans continue to haunt us today. The abolition of chattel slavery did not end the exploitation of Africans. The Europeans moved to the African continent which they carved up and served to further European interests which continues into this 21st century in spite of political independence gained by the formerly colonized continent. On August 1, 2012 we will observe 178 years since slavery was abolished in Canada and 174 years since the system was abolished in the British held colonies in the Caribbean. The Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity(NPAS) is inviting the community to a commemoration of Emancipation Day on Wednesday, August 1, at 63 Gould Street in Toronto. This free event (donations welcome) begins at 6:00 p.m. and features performances and a panel discussion. https://www.facebook.com/events/292313164200816/

AFRICAN AMERICAN INVENTOR GARRETT MORGAN

At approximately 3:00 a.m on July 25th 1916, African American inventor Garrett Augustus Morgan made history when he used one of his inventions (gas mask) to save the lives of City of Cleveland workers trapped underground and exposed to toxic fumes. The disaster occurred because the Cleveland Water Works Department failed to observe safe working conditions for their employees. At the time an existing tunnel which had been built in 1856 in Lake Erie to deal with the city’s contaminated water supply needed to be expanded. In 1856 Cleveland’s city leaders had authorized the construction of the water tunnel to extend 300 feet into the lake where water would be pumped through the tunnel to a reservoir to supply safe drinking water. In 1914 a decision was made to extend the 1856 tunnel an additional 20,000 feet into the lake. On the evening of July 24th, 1916, night shift workers entered the work elevator which would carry them to a 10 foot wide pipe 120 feet below the surface of the lake. There had been problems with the air quality in the shaft on July 23 and work had been suspended because of the presence of highly explosive methane gas. Workers of the day shift on July 24th had stopped digging after only five hours because of the unsafe conditions. By the time the night shift went to work on July 24 it was believed that the gas had dissipated and that it was safe for them to continue working. At 9:40 p.m. on July 24 there was an explosion and smoke billowed out of the tunnel. A rescue party was organized but they were overcome by gas fumes and within minutes they were unconscious. The next group of would be rescuers wrapped their heads in wet towels but were useless and had to leave because they almost overcome by gas. After these unsuccessful rescue attempts the authorities contacted Garrett Morgan at approximately 3:00 a.m on July 25th and requested that he take his invention (gas mask) to the scene of the explosion to rescue the workers and the would be rescuers. Morgan contacted his brother Frank Morgan and they gathered the equipment they needed.

Morgan and his brother Frank were taken to the scene of the explosion on the tug “George A. Wallace.” They were accompanied by fire fighters and the city’s Mayor Harry L. Davis. When they arrived at the scene of the disaster Morgan and his brother went down the dark contaminated tunnel (more than 200 feet) wearing their safety masks and made several trips rescuing more than 20 people and retrieving the bodies of those who had perished in the explosion. In spite of his heroic efforts which saved the lives of many, he was identified by name in only one newspaper article. “G. A. Morgan was in charge of a party from the National Safety Device Co., 5204 Harlem Avenue, S.E.” The other newspapers named two White men as the heroes of the rescue effort. The two White men, Thomas J. Clancy and Thomas Castleberry were recognized as “heroes” and received medals and $500 in reward by the Carnegie Commission. Mayor Harry L. Davis, who had traveled with Morgan and his brother on the tug “George A. Wallace” to the site of the explosion on July 25th and had witnessed the Morgans’ brave rescue of several men, refused to recommend Morgan for the Carnegie Commission’s medal and award.

In October, 1917, Morgan wrote a letter to Mayor Davis demanding an explanation. The letter reads in part; “I am interested in knowing why it was that you and your Director of Law, Mr. Fitzgerald, would not permit me to testify at the investigation of the disaster; when you knew and was an eyewitness to the fact that I positively lead the first successful rescue party that entered the tunnel and came out alive, bringing with me dead and alive bodies, among them Supt. Van Dusen. Why was it you remained silent and allowed awards [to be given] to men who either followed me into the tunnel, or if they went in at all, went in after my return in your presence with dead and alive bodies, when I returned you congratulated me and told me you would see that I was treated fairly and would be commended for my bravery. You also knew that the police, firemen and lifesavers had worked nearly all night without success and that they looked upon my effort as a last hope of saving persons imprisoned in the tunnel. The treatment accorded me in the particulars set out above is much as to make me and the members of my race to feel that you did not give a colored man a square deal” In spite of all the eyewitnesses to the part that the Morgan brothers played during the Waterworks disaster, their role was negated because of racism and White supremacy. Although Morgan was treated unfairly by the city he did receive recognition and awards from other organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP.)

Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877 the 7th of 11 children of Sydney and Elizabeth (Reed) Morgan a couple who had been enslaved until the American Emancipation proclamation in 1865. Morgan began his working life when he left his home in Kentucky as a teenager and moved to Ohio. Although he only had a sixth grade education, he was determined to improve his life through education. He taught himself to repair sewing machines and worked with a number of companies before opening his own business specializing in sewing machine sales and repair in 1907. He used some of the money he made to hire a tutor to improve his education. In 1913, Morgan had applied for a patent of a “gas safety hood.” When the patent was granted in 1914, he established the National Safety Device Company. By 1915, Morgan had been awarded a government contract to supply safety hoods to U.S. naval vessels.

Morgan’s invention which was used during the rescue operations at the Water Works disaster scene on July 25th, 1916 was also used by American military during the First World War and is the prototype of the gas masks used by firefighters today. Morgan also invented the first stoplight to use a caution signal between red and green lights. In 1923, he sold his patent to the General Electric Company for $40,000. A few months later, several traffic lights based on Morgan’s invention were installed along Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland. None of the newspaper articles written about this amazing invention being used to save lives even mentioned Morgan. In 1923, a refined model of his gas mask won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety and another gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Morgan transitioned on July 27, 1963, just a few days after the forty-seventh anniversary of the Waterworks Disaster. He is buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio and his papers are part of the collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society. The passage of time has seen the recognition of the heroism and contributions of this great African American inventor including the Garrett Morgan Cleveland School of Science Academy. The secondary school which is in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District “offers a curriculum of challenging courses with a strong emphasis in math and science” and students can earn an Associate’s Degree in Applied Technology.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

During this year (2012) two Caribbean island nations will be celebrating 50 years of independence from colonial rule. Jamaicans will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their country’s independence on August 6, 1962. The 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 square miles) Caribbean island is the 3rd largest island in the area. The indigenous people (Arawaks) named their island "Xaymaca" (land of wood and water) but the island was renamed Jamaica by the European colonizers. The island was first seen by Europeans when Christopher Columbus made his second journey to what Europeans referred to as the New World. Columbus had been searching for a way East but lost his way and thought he had reached India so mistakenly referred to the indigenous people as Indians. Columbus’ arrival signaled the end of the indigenous population of the island. Foreign European diseases to which the Arawaks had no immunity and a combination of inhumane treatment by the Europeans who attempted to enslave the Arawaks along with the suicide of many, decimated the population of indigenous people. After losing their enslaved native labour force the Spaniards began importing enslaved Africans who were kidnapped and taken from the African continent. Between 1509 and 1655 the island was colonized by the Spanish who eventually lost the island to the British. The tribal conflict in Europe spilled over to the New World where Europeans fought for domination of the lucrative slave trade and the new fertile lands. The Spanish in Jamaica were under constant attack by British pirates encouraged by the British government who coveted the rich land. Eventually in 1655 they successfully wrested Jamaica from Spanish possession. All was not rosy for the British after they captured Jamaica from the Spanish. The fleeing Spanish freed the Africans they had enslaved and left them with enough weapons to pose serious threat to the conquering British. The Africans set free by the Spaniards fled to Jamaica’s interior and resisted re-enslavement by the British. This new community of freed Africans made life difficult for the British whose enslaved Africans would hear stories of the Maroon communties. The most famous of the Maroon leaders is Nanny (the sole female of Jamaica’s 7 National Heroes) whose exploits and fame are legendary. The fighting spirit of enslaved Africans and Maroons in Jamaica is legendary even contributing to the start of the Haitian Revolution. The complete emancipation of Africans by the British government on August 1, 1838 owes much to that fighting spirit which continued until Jamaica was granted independence from British colonial rule 124 years later on August 6, 1962.

The people (Trinidadians and Tobagonians) of the twin island state of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago will celebrate their 50th anniversary on August 31, 1962. Whatever the original inhabitants of the 5,128 square kilometres (1,980 sq miles) area named their island home, Christopher Columbus renamed it "La Isla de la Trinidad" (The Island of the Trinity.) It is said that Columbus gave the island its name when he saw three mountain peaks along the southeastern coast as he travelled by the island on his third voyage to the New World in 1498. Dr. Eric Williams wrote in his 1962 published book “History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago” under the heading Our Amerindian ancestors: “Columbus set out on his third voyage on May 30, 1498 and sighted the island, which he christened Trinidad, at noon on Tuesday, July 31. On this same voyage Columbus is alleged to have sighted Tobago. What is certain is that he did not land in Tobago but proceeded from Trinidad to Hispaniola. Trinidad remained in Spanish hands from July 31, 1498, until it was surrendered by the Spanish Governor to a British naval expedition on February 18, 1797.” Columbus claimed Trinidad for Spain but did not settle on the island. Spaniards who went to the island after Columbus’ sighting kidnapped the native inhabitants (Arawaks and Caribs) and took them to work in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The native population of the island also dwindled because they fell victim to foreign European diseases. The first attempt to establish a colony on the island came in 1592 almost 100 years after Columbus first saw the three peaks on the island. It is said that a group of Spaniards settled in a community they named San Jose de Oruna after they failed to find the famed mythical city of El Dorado in neighbouring (7 miles from Trinidad) Venezuela. The Spanish took enslaved Africans to Trinidad to replace the homegrown labour force (Arawaks and Caribs) they had decimated. Dr. Williams in his “History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago" under the heading “Africa to the Rescue" writes: “They were dragged by the millions from their native land in Africa to the Western Hemisphere. What began as a mere trickle in 1441, with twelve African slaves captured by the Portuguese and taken to Portugal, became a roaring torrent in the 18th and 19th centuries, and one estimate, almost certainly on the conservative side, is that the slave trade cost Africa at least 50,000,000 souls. Africans became important elements in the population in all the Caribbean countries, in Brazil, and in the United States of America. They constituted also an important element in the population of Trinidad and Tobago, and were automatically resorted to, as in other parts of the Spanish dominions, as soon as the decimation of the Amerindians by the Spanish conquest was recognised.” The decimation of the native population and the kidnapping and forced migration of entire communities of Africans did not weigh heavily or even at all on the minds of the Spanish who used these populations to enrich themselves because as Dr. Williams so aptly points out: “In Trinidad, and in the other parts of the Spanish West Indies, the conquest had decimated the Amerindian population, whom the jurist Sepulveda had contemptuously dismissed as being closer to the monkey than to man. So the Spaniards and other Europeans after them, promptly proceeded to introduce, as a substitute for Amerindian labour, the labour of slaves from Africa.” Trinidad changed European hands a few times before the August 1, 1962 independence because the Europeans fought like cats and dogs over possession of land in the New World just as they did in Europe. The first conflict between these European tribes on the island took place in 1595 when the infamous English pirate Walter Raleigh and his gang invaded the Spanish settlement San Jose de Oruna and burned the place to the ground. Raleigh was supposedly executed for his crimes in 1618. Trinidad’s sister island had an equally colourful history. From the pen of Dr Williams we learn that: “If there was one West Indian colony with a sadder history than that of Trinidad in the first 300 years after its discovery by the Spaniards, that colony was Tobago. Tobago suffered from the competition of rival colonialisms. It was a never-ending free-for-all in Tobago. Britain claimed the Island on the ground that it formed part of the acquisition of Sir Thomas Warner in 1626. France claimed it as part of the grant made by Cardinal Richelieu to the French West Indian Company some twenty years later. Holland, grant or no grant, asserted its own claim to the Island. Spain lived in constant apprehension of an attack from Tobago on Trinidad. This is how Tobago lived up the end of the 18th century - between Britain and France, or between France and Holland, or between Holland and Britain, now invaded by the buccaneers, now attacked by Spain, now settled by Courlanders.” Dr. Williams a historian and politician led his country’s independent movement and became the first Prime Minister of the independent nation remaining in that position until he transitioned in 1981.

SUMMERTIME!

Summertime, And the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' And the cotton is high Your daddy's rich And your mamma's good lookin' So hush little baby Don't you cry One of these mornings You're going to rise up singing Then you'll spread your wings And you'll take to the sky But until that morning There's nothing can harm you With your daddy and mammy standing by

From the song “Summertime” first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1936

“Summertime” is the most well known song from the opera “Porgy and Bess” which was written by a white man about the life of American Americans. Set in South Carolina the novel “Porgy” written by a white man who purports to tell the story of African Americans living in poverty in 1920s “Catfish Row” which was a fictitious neighbourhood based on the area of Cabbage Row in Charleston, South Carolina. Most of the dialogue was written in what the author thought was the Gullah language which was spoken by African Americans who lived on the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Some of the information about the Gullah language includes that the language is derived from a combination of West African languages which were spoken by enslaved Africans who were owned by white plantation owners in South Carolina and Georgia. In Georgia the language is sometimes called Geechee. Some historians believe that the word “Gullah” comes from Angola which is a country located on the South West of the African continent. There has been controversy about the portrayal of the African Americans in the novel Porgy and the opera Porgy and Bess. Not surprisingly the novel became a bestseller in 1926. As usual when a white person writes about Africans whether those living in the Americas or from the African continent the book becomes very popular with white readers.

Just last year (2011) we saw this phenomenon when a book written by a white woman about African American maids was immortalized on film and the book became an overnight sensation. Similarly “Heart of Darkness” the racist, white supremacist novel published by Joseph Conrad in 1890 about his “experiences” with the Congolese and the Congo is considered a “classic.” Thankfully there are knowledgeable Africans who can and will debunk the myths written by white writers. Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has done a masterful review of Conrad’s novel which was published in the Massachusetts Review in 1977 http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html under the heading "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness.'" Achebe’s deconstruction of this European “classic” which denigrates Africans and African culture reminds me of the African proverb “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.” The young Igbo writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YEWg1vIOyw is one of those African historians who do tell the African story.

In spite of the miserable lives of the characters in the opera “Porgy and Bess” the song “Summertime” is hopeful and does seem to portray a better life for the next generation. In North America like the song from Porgy and Bess, during the summertime life does seem to be easier to live with beautiful sunshine and warm weather for almost three months. African Caribbean culture has been a mainstay of Toronto summers for more than 40 years. The small celebration that began as the Caribbean contribution to Canada’s centennial celebration has grown to become a multimillion dollar business. The celebration based on African culture which was transported to the Caribbean on slave ships with the enslaved Africans who were forced to “toil and toil so hard each day” as immortalized by Sparrow in his calypso “slave” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRtBUjINgrEis the basis of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival. The T&T Carnival was the foundation of the annual Caribana celebration which has slowly but surely slipped away or has been stolen from the architects of the celebration. Now the celebration has been given a new name and has mostly been reduced to a display of “feathers and flesh.” Regardless, Caribbean people taught Canadians how to hold a street party and enjoy the summer. Today there are several summer street festivals, patterned after the Caribana celebration, which are allowed to enjoy the city with various streets closed to traffic while the participants parade down those streets or set up stalls and enjoy the beautiful summer weather. The celebration and the people who started it all have been relegated to the far corner of the city out of sight. To get to the colourful celebration we now have to travel by public transportation which nets major profit for the government when all the visitors to the city who are compelled to use the TTC to access the celebration are counted. Summertime is also the time when our children are out of school and formal education is mostly abandoned. This is an excellent time to introduce our young people to books that will teach them about their history and culture. Summertime is the time to unwind and enjoy the weather and can include trips to the library and areas of the city where African Canadians lived and in many cases thrived and contributed to the wealth of this city. Most of these facts are absent from the curriculum that is taught in the public schools but available in many books at the public libraries which benefit from our tax dollars. Parents and guardians please ensure that your children include reading as part of their summertime fun and easy living.

GUYANESE MUSIC: KWE KWE

Jane engage and she tink nobady like she Jane engage and she tink nobady like she Run a kokah dam someting bruk away Run a kokah dam Jane engage and she walk the village wid style O run a kokah dam someting bruk away Run a kokah dam From Guyanese kwe-kwe song “Jane Engage”

Singing and dancing to kwe-kwe songs is an important part of some African Guyanese pre-wedding celebration. The songs are sung in the Guyanese Creolese language which is derived from several Central African and West African languages combined with the languages of the Europeans who enslaved Africans. The kwe-kwe pre-wedding celebration does not seem to have a corresponding ceremony in any present day African nation which suggests it was probably derived from a combination of African ceremonies. After all the Europeans who enslaved Africans went to great pains to ensure that they separated the Africans to make it difficult for communication in a common language. The Europeans were afraid that if there were many Africans from any particular nation on their plantation they would foment rebellion and the Europeans would be caught unprepared. However African Trinidadian professor Maureen Warner-Lewis in her 2002 published “Central Africa in the Caribbean: Transcending Time, Transforming Cultures” compares aspects of the Guyanese kwe-kwe to pre-wedding ceremonies in ancient Kongo (Congo.) Professor Warner-Lewis who is also the author of the 1999 published “Trinidad Yoruba: From Mother Tongue to Memory” where she traces remnants of the Yoruba language in Guyana and Trinidad lists the music and songs among the evidence that links kwe-kwe to the Kongo celebration.

The songs sung during the kwe-kwe are varied including instructions for the soon to be married couple, for the relatives and community to support the couple and also social commentary. The greeting song “Goo nite aye” and “Come to my kwe-kwe” invites the entire village to enjoy the celebration. “Nation ah whey yuh nation?” another popular kwe-kwe song urging identification with African nations is recognition of the scattering of Africans during slavery. The kwe-kwe opens with the pouring of libation by sprinkling liquor (Guyana white rum or high wine) on the floor, around the doors and windows. There is usually a leader who will “call out” the song to be sung and will signal the end by instructing “bato, bato.” The singers and dancers are usually accompanied by the music of drums, shak-shaks and/or the sounds of clapping and the rhythmic stamping of feet moving to the irresistible beat of voices raised in joyful celebration.

Kwe-kwe with its accompanying dance and songs is a unique ceremony derived from the experience of Africans who were enslaved by Europeans in what was once British Guiana. African American spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, rock and roll, the African Central and South American cha cha cha, salsa, samba, mambo, meringue and rumba can also be traced to the African continent. During this last week of Black Music Month 2012 a search of the Internet shows that the contributions and influence of Africa and Africans to world music, art, dance and other cultural “norms” of today continues to be recognized and celebrated. Unfortunately celebrations like kwe-kwe are losing ground and the kwe-kwe celebration is not as popular as it used to be and there are predictions that it may become a museum display or reduced to occasional “cultural” performances. African traditions in Guyana seem to be fading from the memories of the people who should be practicing and upholding these traditions. If we forget who we are what will we become? The Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey considered the father of modern Pan-Africanism said: “A People without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

In the 1993 released movie “Sankofa” an African elder says to an African American fashion model who did not know that she was African: “Go back to the past, to the source.” African Guyanese need to heed that advice because many of us do not know much about our history. We do not know about the sacrifices that our ancestors made to purchase the land on which they established villages. The Village Movement is a mystery to many of us even some living in the villages that were bought with the blood, sweat and tears of formerly enslaved Africans after the August 1st 1834 Emancipation of Africans enslaved by the British. The villages on the Courentyne (Courtland, Fyrish and Gibraltar) where my father, his siblings, cousins and their parents were born are villages established by their ancestors who saved the pittance they were grudgingly paid by their former enslavers after Emancipation. In unity, groups of Africans purchased the land where they once laboured without pay and established villages on the length and breadth of the Guyana coastland in Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo. Today even the commemoration of August 1st Emancipation Day which was important during my childhood and youth in Guyana is now mostly ignored.

In Guyana kwe-kwe may have been reduced to a quaint celebration in a few African Guyanese villages but there is some good news. African Guyanese in Brooklyn, New York have been keeping the kwe-kwe alive with re-enactment of this African Guyanese pre-wedding celebration. On Friday August 31st as part of the annual Guyana Folk Fest in Brooklyn, New York there will be a “kwe-kwe-nite” as part of the festival. Hopefully this initiative will encourage Guyanese at home and abroad to make kwe-kwe with its music and dance part of their educational and cultural experience.

Nation ah whey you nation? Nation ah whey dem deh? Nation ah whey awe nation? Nation ah whey dem dey?